Charming and Informative | I Was Right On Time

Got To Give It Up | I Was Right On Time | Buck O'neil, David Conrads

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	• I Was Right On Time Buck O'neil, David Conrads Simon & Schuster, 1997 - 272 pages average customer review:based on 23 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

BUCK!

Just what I needed to learn more about Buck. Horribly over-looked by the Hall of Fame. Very informative book, just in time for baseball season.

Charming and Informative

This easy-going autobiography combines sunny optimism, seriousness, and rich baseball history. John J. "Buck" O'Neil was a first baseman in the Negro Leagues during the 1930-1940's, and he then spent another half decade in baseball, both in the Negro Leagues and in the majors. Here he recounts his upbringing in Florida during segregation (where he was denied entry to high school) and his long career in baseball. O'Neil details life in the Negro leagues, including barnstorming and low pay, playing for the famed Kansas City Monarchs and his friendship with stars like Satchel Paige and Hilton Smith. He also describes managing in the Negro Leagues, coaching for the Chicago Cubs (the first black coach in the majors) and spending decades as a baseball scout. O'Neil is an intelligent man gifted with great charm, and he's often described as the "ambassador to baseball." That charm shines in the prose of co-writers Steve Wolf and David Conrads, and lets O'Neil attack injustice without losing effectiveness via stridency.

Buck O'Neil gained fame from the "Baseball" documentary by Ken Burns, and at this writing remains a board member for the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City well into his 90's. This is a readable look at the Negro leagues by one of its most charming members.

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Got To Give It Up

This is not simply an autobiography, but an oral-history on where we have been and where we are going. It was written from the heart, and - if you read closely - it will open yours to live life in a different, better way.

I read the book when it was initially published and recently purchased the soft-cover edition. Rarely do I re-read a book, but I felt the need after hearing Buck O'Neil's moving and uplifting speech this summer at the Baseball Hall of Fame and listening to a rebroadcast of an interview conducted several years ago by radio sports-talker Jim Rome.

The road to racial equality remains long and steep, but by gazing upward you may view what appears to be a finish-line tape rippling in the breeze at the top of the mountain. But look ahead and you see the harsh reality that the road remains unfortunately rugged, with many twists & turns.

Buck O'Neil is an American hero and if your eyes are dry after reading the last page of I Was Right On Time (no matter how many times you read the book), then your heart may not have opened up wide enough to tackle the journey ahead.

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An incredible human being...

Back in the early 90's, before Ken Burns, I ran into Buck in the lobby of the Otesaga hotel in Cooperstown. It was the year that Willie McCovey was going in and we "snuck" our way into the building. Buck entertained me for over an hour with stories of guys I never had heard about. When I asked about his career, he really downplayed his greatness. I was mostly struck by the fact that this man did not have a single ounce of remorse or spite. Quite the opposite, he felt he was blessed to have played.

The book is written in a conversational style that goes quickly. I felt I could hear Buck's voice in my head has the pages turned. It was a fantastic book and Buck will be sorely missed.

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Give it up -- He was right on time

What a great book. How I would have loved to just sit with Buck and just talk and listen to him and his stories. I also learned some new things about Sarasota, FL and all the great players in the Negro Leagues and people in general. Now more than ever I believe he is a Hall of Famer and he should be in there. He might not have been the greatest player... but he was a GREAT man. If you want to read a great book that will make you laugh.. smile.. maybe tear up... this book is for you.

From Babe Ruth to Bo Jackson, from Cool Papa Bell to Lou Brock, Buck O'Neil has seen it all. As a first baseman and then manager of the legendary Kansas City Monarchs, O'Neil witnessed the heyday of the Negro leagues and their ultimate demise.

In I Was Right on Time, he charmingly recalls his days as a ballplayer and as an African-American in a racially divided country. Whether he's telling of his barnstorming days with the likes of Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson or the day in 1962 when he became the first African-American coach in the major leagues, O'Neil takes us on a trip not only through baseball's past but through America's as well.

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